I’ve recently been on vacation, and as part of a family trip almost made it to Bronson Canyon, location for Robot Monster. I think I was within 1-2 miles, but walking the rest of the way to the caves just was not in the cards in the time I had.
But I did make it to Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles’ landmark astronomy site, located also within Griffith Park. I’ve had a lifelong obsession with this observatory, thanks to the PBS series Project: Universe, which debuted in 1978 and played at least until 1989 where I grew up.
This is the debut episode, featuring plenty of Griffith Observatory:
More on Project: Universe some other time. For right now, it’s just good to have made it to the observatory, taken in the Art Deco architecture, and have this photo of a Tesla coil to show for it:
Thanks once more to Jon at Kitley’s Krypt, who previously interviewed me on my book, and has followed up with a very nice and in-depth review! Read it here.
In 2012, the soundtrack album I had always wanted came out, Jerry Goldsmith’s complete score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. There had been an expanded edition in January 1999 (“Get a life? No, get this instead!” said a sticker on the album when I bought it at Best Buy) and, while it was an improvement on the original album, it still left out far too much.
So La-La Land Records finally came through and released their magnificent three-disc edition with the complete score, the 1979 original album, early attempts, outtakes of the orchestra being shushed by the conductor, Shaun Cassidy’s surprisingly manly vocals on a pop version of the main theme, a Bob James instrumental, and oh, yes, a track of isolated Blaster Beam.
Seriously, it’s just awesome. The best album ever released. Just buy it already.
Anyway, a year or more later I was able to part with a cruddy old piano that never stayed in tune because thanks to Craig’s List I found a much better free piano. But because disposing pianos is not that easy, I had the old one around for a while and developed a seriously stupid idea. This was to remove the sound board of the piano and try to somehow make it into a blaster beam.
Now, the stupidity comes from the fact that piano strings are very large and tense enough that they can actually be deadly if snapped. I knew that I didn’t want to mess with the strings once I read about them a little, but I thought about removing the sound board whole and attaching bass guitar pickups to it for amplification. But after seeing how thoroughly attached it was to the wood of the piano, I abandoned the idea as impractical and just plain stupid.
But there are some intrepid souls out there who have tried to build their own. And this guy has done a magnificent smaller version with mostly ordinary household items. Check it out:
A few posts ago, I brought up the Chapman Stick. Now I bring you another recently invented instrument, but an even better one and, really, it ranks with the pipe organ for best ever: The Blaster Beam.
Many thanks (a little belatedly, as I’ve lately been out of it on blogging) to Jon Kitley over at Kitley’s Krypt for interviewing me on my Robot Monster book. Check it out!
It’s been far too long since I’ve posted. Picking up from the Dune soundtrack last time, here is a piece from a Dune deleted scene that showed up in the Alan Smithee-credited extended TV version:
This is the work of Emmett Chapman, inventor of the unique guitar-based instrument known as the Chapman Stick. Here’s a more substantial look at Mr. Chapman and his invention:
Shostakovich’s waltz from the previous post has been given some cinematic glory, especially from the visionary Stanley Kubrick. Over a decade before, the visionary David Lynch had TOTO keyboardist David Paich compose the score for his epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune (a project that Lynch had tremendous enthusiasm for, despite his later disowning it). As Paich remembered, Lynch had Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony in mind for the kind of music he wanted for his film. As this track demonstrates, Paich and his bandmates ran with that influence and achieved a beautiful result:
It’s been a bit of an absence for me, but picking up from “Just Another Dream” here is the easily recognizable second waltz from Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Jazz Suite No. 2.” Kubrick made it famous in Eyes Wide Shut, which is based on a novel titled Traumnovelle, or “Dream Novel.” So there, from one dream to another. (And I have no idea how often it’s been used in this or that . . . it recently showed up in Batman v Superman, but I associate it most with an episode of the Nero Wolfe series with Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin.)
OK, I really like the Professionals now that I’m hearing even more of them, so that’s a good excuse for an obvious transition to another Professionals song. It’s another silly early ’80s video, but this one is a little more creative. Also, note that this is an earlier line-up of the band as a three-piece with a different bassist. Paul Cook and Steve Jones are terribly underrated:
RUNESTAD WRITES 